This invention relates to the packaging of smoking articles such as cigars, cigarillos and cigarettes. They will be referred to herein for brevity and clarity as cigarettes.
Cigarette packs fall into two broad classes rigid and soft. Soft packs are more common in the USA and Japan. They are as the name implies formed essentially of soft sheet materials. Rigid packs, more frequently encountered in Europe, have an outer shell of card to contain a charge of cigarettes.
The rigid type allows for good protection of the cigarettes and of any inner wrappings such as a barrier layer provided to hinder moisture ingress or escape, but they are quite complex in construction and assembly and can be a significant cost factor.
Soft packs are simpler and cheaper but there is more risk of damage to the contents in transport or handling.
The present invention proposes a new form of packaging for cigarettes which may be described as semi-rigid.
In the prior art, various reinforcement or protective sheets have been placed between a charge of cigarettes and an outer wrap.
GB-A-2264483, for example, shows a folded cap of card placed over the vulnerable ends of a charge of cigarettes.
GB-A-1514174 has an inner liner with front and back panels linked through a base panel, and side panels, forming an open-ended box within an outer wrapper. EP-A-633202 shows an external open-topped box into which a wrapped charge is inserted.
GB-A-918388 has a largely rigid box within a wrapper but one side panel of the box is not secured as in a conventional pack and can be depressed inwardly so as to allow severance of the outer wrapper for access to the cigarettes.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,755,579 has a frame around a charge of cigarettes that is overwrapped with tin foil or equivalent.